A generational shift requires trial lawyers to change not only their messages but also the media with which they deliver those messages. For the next several decades, lawyers predominantly will try personal-injury cases to Generation-X and Generation-Y (aka Millennial) juries.
Understanding the broad traits of these demographic cohorts will be crucial to success in the courtroom. One of the biggest mistakes trial lawyers can make is to assume that Gen X and Gen Y are alike and warrant the same treatment. Members of Generation X (born from 1965 through 1979) and Generation Y/Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) have distinctive characteristics. Though they may respond similarly to the medium, they have a much different response to the message. Let’s examine each in turn.
